Ubisoft is deactivating keys for Far Cry 4 and Assassin's Creed Unity that it claims were obtained by re-sellers through fraudulent means.
Players began noticing the games disappearing from their Uplay libraries a few days ago, and took to the Ubisoft forums to discuss the matter. At least one user claims a copy of Watch Dogs was also removed.
Several of the people affected by the deactivations appear to be from Poland or other Central and Eastern European countries, and have purchased the keys from third-party digital retailers, such as Kinguin and G2A.
Ubisoft told IGN: "We regularly deactivate keys that were fraudulently obtained and resold. In this case, we are currently investigating the origin of the fraud, and will update customers as soon as we have more information to share. In the meantime, customers should contact the vendor from whom they purchased the key."
While some third-party digital storefronts do obtain their keys directly from publishers, others may do so through re-sellers that acquire the keys through illegal means; for instance, with stolen credit cards. Similar scams have occurred in other game communities, such as League of Legends last year.
Regardless of how the keys were obtained by third-party retailers, players have voiced their frustrations at having games they purchased removed without a refund.
"I'm a paying customer and I'm being punished by not being able to play a game I bought," one user stated on the Ubisoft forums.
G2A, one of the online marketplaces involved in this current fraud claim, said it's looking into possible refunds for those affected.
"G2A is well aware of this process and will do everything possible to compensate for that," said Marek Zimny, marketing manager at G2A, in a statement to Destructoid. "For users who have made transactions without G2A Shield, we will check if the corresponding merchant was responsible for the withdrawal of the code."
Zimny continued: "If so, these users will get a compensation. We are carefully checking and verifying every transaction affected by this procedure, so we must ask users, without protection from G2A Shield, for their patience regarding upcoming refunds."
Update Jan. 27, 3:00 p.m. PT: Ubisoft issued the following, updated statement in response to the story below:
"We strongly recommend that players purchase keys and downloadable games only from the Uplay Store or their trusted retailers. We regularly work with our authorized resellers to identify and deactivate fraudulently obtained and resold keys. In this case, we confirmed activation keys were recently purchased from EA’s Origin store using fraudulent credit card information and then resold online. These keys may have been deactivated. Customers who may have been impacted should contact the vendor where they purchased the key for a refund."
